


Captured Rotation

by melonbutterfly



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Drunkenness, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-07
Updated: 2011-04-07
Packaged: 2017-10-17 17:12:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/179106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melonbutterfly/pseuds/melonbutterfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A tidally locked body takes just as long to rotate around its own axis as it does to revolve around its partner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Captured Rotation

"No, no, see," Rodney says earnestly, swaying a little. John catches his elbow, more to help him balance than to keep him from tipping over; Rodney isn't so tipsy he can't stay upright when seated. Hopefully. "They decided that, to be considered a planet, the celelestial body has to orbit around the sun, have enough mass to assume hydroshtatic eqi... equi... balance," John makes a circle in the air when Ronon and Teyla throw him questioning glances, "and has to have cleared its neighborhood. BUT!" Rodney suddenly exclaims, raising his index finger; John tightens his grip on his elbow. "It's not fair!", Rodney complains loudly. John has to bite his lip to keep from laughing; Rodney usually is the one who proclaims that fairness is a luxury not even kindergarten can provide, much less the Pegasus Galaxy.

"Why is it not fair?", Teyla inquires when Rodney doesn't continue, looking at both her and Ronon with wide eyes and obviously expecting them to ask.

"Because!", Rodney says immediately. "Earth, Mars, Jupiter _and_ Neptune _all_ haven't done that! So they shouldn't be planets either, like Pluto. It's _cheating_."

Teyla share's an amused glance with John, then asks, "What does 'clearing the neighborhood' mean?"

"Is when a planet is the dominant gravitational object in its orbital zone," Rodney replies with surprising clarity, only to ruin it by listing sideways. John quickly wraps his arm around his back and pulls him into his chest; Rodney practically melts into him. "Earth and Jupiter have lotsa asteroids," Rodney continues as if nothing had happened, "and Neptune, of course, has Pluto and the belt."

"I thought the belt was between Mars and Jupiter," John says.

Rodney makes a derisive noise and tilts his head up to glare at him. "That's the first belt," he says. "I'm talking about the Kuiper belt. Pluto is in it." Rodney sighs. "And so is Makemake, Ixion, Varuna, Haumea, Orcus, Quaoar..."

"That's great, buddy," John interrupts quickly; if you let Rodney start to list in his condition, he might never stop. "How about we get you to bed?"

"Chaos, Huya, Deucalion, Logos, Borasisi..."

John sighs and throws a helpless look towards Teyla and Ronon, who look way more amused than they have any right to. But they get up and help him get Rodney on his feet, who is busy trying to pronounce something that sounds completely incoherent. "Teha-ron-hi-awa-ko!", he finally says happily and beams at the all. Ronon snorts.

"Awesome," John says. "Come along, Rodney." He takes Rodney's arm and waves at their team mates, who clear up the remains of their little get-together on one of the balconies.

"Rhada-manthus, Altjira..." Rodney murmurs, head tilted towards John and eyes fixed on his feet. "There is also a lot of them with only numbers as name," he slurs. "Wanna know them?"

"No," John says quickly and, when Rodney makes a hurt noise, "Uhm. Do you know Saturn's moons? I heard somewhere there are a couple."

"Sixty-two," Rodney says happily; John inwardly groans. "The seven biggest are Titan, Rhea, Iapetus, Dione, Tethys, Enceladus and Mimas. Titan is larger then Mercury – in size at least – and fifty percent bigger than Earth's moon, and eighty percent more massive. It's the second biggest moon in the solar system, after Jupiter's Ganymede, was discovered by Christiaan Huygens in 1655, and is the only natural satellite with a dense atmosphere that we know of."

"Cool," John says and pulls Rodney into the transporter.

"A couple of the KBO's have moons also," Rodney explains earnestly as they exit the transporter. "I didn't mention them before. All of the KBO's also count as TNO's, though not all TNO's are KBO's as well."

John decides not to ask. He opens the door to Rodney's quarters with a thought; inside, he sighs. No way is Rodney capable of getting undressed and into bed by himself.

"Quaoar's moon is called Weywot," Rodney says, "Logos' moon is called Zoe, and actually, they're binary asteroids."

John has no idea what that is, but he again decides not to ask. It's better to let Rodney just trail off when he's like this; he'll probably talk himself to sleep, but if John wakes his brain up by engaging it with questions, he might not get to that point for hours yet. Once, John had spent three hours sitting next to Rodney, who was happily babbling about how he had once tried to calculate how big and deep a body of water would have to be so Saturn could float in it. That is the sort of thing Rodney considers recreational.

"Borasisi's moon is Pabu, they're also binary asteroids," Rodney explains; the way he says it, it sounds like that's the best thing ever.

Not replying in order not to distract Rodney, John gently directs him to sit on the bed and makes him sit. Crouching in front of him while Rodney tells him that Teharonhiawako's moon is called Sawiskera – how he's able to pronounce them in his condition, John has no idea – John pulls off Rodney's shoes and socks. Carefully putting them under the bed so Rodney won't stumble over them when he gets out of bed to make a run for the toilet in the morning, John rises again. He contemplates getting Rodney to stand up again, but decides against it; instead, he urges him back on his bed, crawling after him. While Rodney babbles that Vanth is Orcus' moon, John pulls his jacket and shirt off him. Once that is done, Rodney lies on his back and stares at the ceiling while John opens his belt and pants.

After that, Rodney is occupied for a moment wriggling out of his pants with John's encouraging; then, he happily lists Hiʻiaka and Namaka, Haumea's moons.

When John tries to get off the bed, Rodney pauses again. "John," he says seriously, closing his fingers around John's wrist.

John swallows and looks down at where Rodney's fingers are wrapped around his wrist. "Yeah?"

"Pluto has three moons," Rodney says, still so very earnest. "Hydra and Nix, they're the outer ones."

John swallows again. "What about the third?"

"The third is Charon," Rodney explains. "Charon and Pluto are tidally locked. Do you know what that means?", he asks and pulls at John's arm, making him lie down next to him.

"No," John says. He suddenly wonders just how drunk Rodney really is.

Rodney reaches out with his free hand and pulls at his shirt until John obediently takes it off. After that, Rodney waits until John gets it and takes his pants off too, toeing off his boots and socks, before he rolls onto his side and faces John. "It's also called captured rotation," he says and pulls his crumbled sheets – Rodney doesn't believe in making beds – over both of them. "It's when two bodies always face one another. They rotate around each other, but a tidally locked body takes just as long to rotate around its own axis as it does to revolve around its partner."

John swallows. "Okay."

Rodney leans so close that John can smell the alcohol on his breath. "Do you get it, John?"

John nods. "Just how drunk are you, Rodney?", he whispers.

Rodney smiles and closes his eyes.


End file.
